ABSTRACT
This chapter provides industry context to packhouse industry personnel, students, and researchers interested in post-harvest fruit operations. It also presents an operation of a fruit packhouse. The chapter also describes both technologies and their horticultural application, requiring a blend of the disciplines of engineering and biology. Packhouse mechanization has been driven by increasing cost and decreasing availability of labor, increasing scale of operation, increasing attention to care of the fruit to extend shelf life, and an increasingly discerning consumer base with purchasing preferences made on fruit size, color, etc. The packline provides a structured, controlled environment for imaging of fruit. Fruit weight can be measured by use of load cell technology, with the cup containing the fruit skidding across the load cell and load cell output averaged over a short interval. A key enabling technology is the development of wireless networks for data access from instrumentation in orchards and in transport modules.
